History Alive will hold its annual event in Hillsborough on Aug. 21 and 22.
Are you curious about what native people used to live, and enjoy hiking, fishing, and exploring in New Hampshire where we now live? As a precursor to the 250th celebration of its town, this year’s special focus of Hillsborough’s History Alive Weekend will be on the Abenakis who lived in our area before the town was formed plus what kind of environment and forest the first white settlers found upon their arrival. At the Hillsborough Center site, we will focus on the native inhabitants and the natural environment here before the town was founded.
If you want to know what is the real meaning of the names of our mountains and rivers (like Contoocook, Monadnock, Massasecum), the Abenaki Trails Project leaders will share about newer discoveries about local land forms and sacred sites of the Abenaki.
■Find out what the Abenaki taught the early settlers about surviving in wilderness using local plants for food, medicine, dyes at a display by Lynn Clowe and the Monadnock Herb Society
■Enjoy listening to Bryan Blanchette, from Vermont a professional Abenaki singer, songwriter, and drummer.
■Help the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts build an Abenaki style wigwam, and learn how and help make a basket from Sherry Gould, a master Abenaki basketmaker.
■There are many other crafts (miniature birchbark canoes, dolls, and Abenaki tales told by Brian Chenevert, Abenaki historian and storyteller.
■Learn about the climate and landscape before settlers came from Michael Gagnon, a UNH professor.
■See the display of a canoe recently made of birchbark using traditional Abenaki methods.
In addition, you can compete in a cake walk and auction, enjoy a drama performed about our ancestors, join in a demo of early baseball – or watch a parade around the center led by our local antique cyclist celebrity .
The project at this site was made possible with support from NH Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at nhhumanities.
If you are more interested in military history, you can come watch reenactments of elements and battles of the King Phillips War, French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, with regiments coming from many states and Canada at Jones Road stone arch bridge, one mile away. Also at the Reenactment site, kids can pan for gold, and all ages can try out the dances popular from the 1750s to 1850s led by Mary DesRosiers from Harrisville, held under a large tent Saturday night.
All recommended health/safety protocols will be followed, and most activities are outside.
For details of schedule and cost of this year’s unique program, visit historyalivenh.org.